Archaeologists Discover Baja Mining Aged 12 Thousand Years

Archaeologists have discovered a steel mine oxide was 12 thousand years in Chile, which is evidence of the oldest mines ever discovered.

Report to be published in the journal Current Anthropology menungkap that a team of researchers led by Diego Salazar from Universidad de Chile, find mines as deep as 40 meters in the coastal town Taltal, southern Chile.

The mine was dug by people Huentelauquen, who first occupied the area. Similarly, as quoted by Eurika Alert.

People Huentelauquen using steel oxide to dye the stone and bone are used as accessories to them. "It is also possible to dye their bodies and clothes," said the researchers.

"This proves that the mining has been known since long, and requires special skills," Salazar wrote in Current Anthropology.

Approximately 700 cubic meters and 2 thousand tons of rock excavated from the mine. Carbon age of charcoal found in wood and shellfish in the mine suggests that the site was 12 thousand years, which is then used back approximately 4,300 years ago.

"Exploitation of more than a thousand years in the mine, indicating knowledge of the location, the substance contained in it, and excavation techniques, has been passed down for centuries by the people Huentelauquen," wrote the researchers.

Prior to this discovery, an ancient copper mines are also found in North America approximately 4,500 years old.